Joining over 45 like-minded organizational heads, AWEA Executive Director Randy Swisher signed onto the "Wingspread Principles on the U.S. Response to Global Warming," an initiative of the Global Energy Center for Community Sustainability.

The principles document was developed from the National Leadership Summit on Energy and Climate Change held last June. It is based on a draft that was offered by Jonathan Lash, president of World Resources Institute, and is signed by industry executives showing their support for it.

The document calls on the U.S., "to take immediate, comprehensive action against global warming," guided by a dozen principles ranging from urgency to opportunity. "Every year that we delay action to reduce emissions makes the problem more painful and more expensive - and makes the unavoidable consequences more severe," the document states under its principle of urgency.

Another one of the principles is predictability - an issue that resonates within the ranks of the wind industry, which has had to deal with short extensions of the production tax credit, hindering its ability to plan for the long-term. Other principles include effective action, consistency and continuity of purpose, flexibility, everyone plays, multiple benefits, accurate market signals, prudent preparation, international solutions, and fairness.